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Don't you dare choose me! |
I am old enough to remember the days before supermarkets,
when Sainsbury was a deli store and when in the small shops you used to have to
queue to get served and the whole experience was as much about social
interaction as it was about shopping.
These were the days when we didn’t have a fridge and mum used to go
shopping almost every day. The
shopkeepers often used to have a wicked sense of humour and I remember during
bob-a-job week going in as a young cub to buy ice cream for someone and being
asked if I wanted the ice cream hot or cold!
It foxed me for a while!
What many of us Brits love about France is that it is like
going back in time in many respects.
Funnily enough what a lot of the French youngsters love about London is
that it is so modern and always changing.
In England, supermarkets changed everything and even small shops nowadays
tend to be reasonably impersonal. En
France they have the grand surfaces or big supermarkets but many of the small
stores have remained the same. Buy
direct from the producer and it is another level again and this is why it can
take 30 minutes to buy a chicken!
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Outside the farmshop with our dogs |
In Veaugues we are lucky enough to have a small poultry
farmer who sells his poulets (chickens) and pintades (guinea fowl) direct to
the locals. Now one thing that surprises us Brits about France is that they
don’t eat nearly as much chicken as in the UK.
In the UK chicken has almost become the norm and is regarded as the
healthy option, us rosbifs (“roast beefs”) eat hardly any beef any more. The French eat far more beef, and chicken is a special occasion meal and
even in the supermarkets you don’t see chiller shelves full of factory-produced
chickens. I remember when it was like
this in England and we had chicken perhaps just once a year at Easter. In the nineteen fifties chicken was really
expensive and a real luxury item; lamb, pork and beef were much more
affordable. I used to have an austerity
cookbook dating back to that time and there were no chicken recipes at all in
it. Then along came Bernard
Matthews……….
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M .Joulain prepares our pintade |
Anyway, back to current day Veaugues. Having seen his sign we decided to ring Monsieur Joulain and see if we could come
along immediately and buy a chicken; the usual modern wish of instant
gratification. M. Joulain protested
that as he didn’t know us, how could he possibly know what type of chicken we
wanted; there are different types of chicken!!
Eventually, we persuaded him that we should come along and meet him and
tell him our needs; ie a chicken to roast!
This we did and eventually a chicken was selected and given
to us nicely hand wrapped. Then came the
next surprise; no payment was expected, the first purchase was free. Meanwhile Monsieur Joulain had been
practising his English on us and conversation had flowed for a considerable
time. Hence it can take at least 30
minutes to buy a chicken.
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Our pintade complete with head |
At home we found another surprise awaiting us, the chicken
still had its head on! Definitely not what you would find in a supermarket. It reminded me of when I was in China at the
Beijing duck restaurant and a whole duck was served to us in the various
courses and I do mean the whole duck – eventually the head was served as a
special treat to the oldest person on the table – luckily I was quite young
then.
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Jane with M.Joulain |
The next time we visited Monsieur Poulain, we
had to pay of course, and we chose to
try one of his pintades, something relatively rare in the UK. Again the transaction took over 30 minutes
but really added to the joy of the day. I
got a chance to practise my French and Monsieur Joulain got a chance to
practise his English. Great old-fashioned
service. You pay for it as the poultry
isn’t cheap but at least you know the chicken has had a healthy life and has not
been reared in a Bernard Matthews type factory farm. The chicken has more texture and more
flavour, something I’m not sure that most Brits would appreciate! Vive la difference, as us Brits might say.
It is certainly great fun living a different lifestyle. We don't don't exactly live in a city in England either but going to a farm shop around where we live is not nearly such a fun experience. In England everything is a rush.
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A very Pop Larkin scene near Mr Joulain's farm |